2nd phase of Jharkhand Assembly polls on Saturday

The second phase of polling for 20 Assembly seats in Jharkhand will take place on Saturday.

"For the 20 Assembly seats, there are a total of 260 candidates whose fate will be decided by 48,25,038 voters, including 23,93,437 women and 90 third gender. The polling will take place at 6,066 polling booths of which 1,016 are in urban areas and the rest in rural areas," said Vinay Kumar Chaube, Chief Election Officer (CEO) of Jharkhand.

He added that "webcasting arrangements have been made in 1,662 polling booths".

Sources in the police said that more than 40,000 security forces have been deployed for the second phase of polling, which is taking place in Maoist affected areas.

The polling will take place 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on 18 seats while two seats East Jamshedpur and West Jamshedpur will go to the polls from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Of the 20 seats, 16 are reserved for Schedule Tribe (ST) and one for Schedule Caste (SC).

There are a total of 260 candidates in the fray, including 29 women. Jamshedpur East and Jamshedpur West have 20 candidates each, while Seraikela has seven candidates, the lowest.

The centre of attraction is the Jamshedpur East seat from where Chief Minister Raghubar Das is contesting against former cabinet colleague Saryu Rai and Congress spokesperson Gaurabh Vallabh.

Besides the Chief Minister, other major names contesting in the second phase include Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Dinesh Oraon, Urban Development Minister Neelkanth Singh Munda, Water Resources Minister Ramchandra Sahis, former cabinet minister Saryu Rai and state BJP president Laxman Giluwa.

Jailed Maoist commander Kunadan Pahan is also contesting from the Tamar Assembly seat.

( With inputs from IANS )